A Life I Once Knew
by Twihardfan3194
Summary: So what happens if Daphne decided to do the surgery to cure her hearing loss? Had would that change her relationship with Emmett? Would she get along better with her fellow classmates at school? Or would the life she once knew end tragically? R&R! :
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so this is my first Switched at Birth fanfic! I absolutely L.O.V.E the television series, and I hope you all do too! :) What a way to end the summer season finale, huh? CRAZY! I'm not sure if I can wait for more;) Hope you all love Switched at Birth as much as I do and I hope you enjoy my fanfic. Hopefully I'll stick with this one and it will go somewhere (: And sorry if it's kinda short...**

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**~ Twihardfan3194.**

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><p>I was walking towards the parking lot of Buckner High when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I spun around and was greeted by the familiar faces of three girls in my French class.<p>

Their smiles were just a little too fake, similar to their beach blond hair. The girl in front of the two continued to grin her blindingly white smile and tosses her bag over her shoulder.

"Daphne, right?" she asked sweetly.

"Yes," I replied hesitantly, my voice nearly forming the response as a question.

"We just wanted to say how well you did in French today." Bay had recommended the class to me when I started at Buckner. "You really had the accent going for you, what with your voice being…different and all." She threw me a sickening grin as the other girls laughed.

My blue eyes narrowed and I glared at her. Before I could come up with a comment, she quickly threw another remark at me. "Why don't you go back to where you came from? Nobody wants you here. You're a nobody—a _retard_," she hissed.

I bit my lip to force back the tears that threatened. "Better a retard than a b—"

I felt the ground vibrate from underneath me and I turned around, meeting my best friend Emmett's eyes. He ran his hand over his blond hair and glared at the girls behind me before turning to look at me with worried eyes. "Are you okay?" he signed.

"I'm fine," I assured him.

"Oh, look. She had her little boyfriend come to her rescue. You know what they say about retards—they always stick together."

"Why don't you just shut up? You wouldn't know a retard if it hit you in the face. Better yet, you don't know anything, period," Emmett angrily signed at them, throwing his hands in the air.

One of the girls stepped forward to stand beside her friend and she crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't know what you said, but why don't you get out of here. You're not welcome here anymore then deaf girl is."

I flinched at the name. _Deaf girl—retard. _It was like I was eight years old again at my previous elementary school. And here stood Emmett trying his best to defend me and stick up for me when I needed him the most—again.

Emmett quickly tossed me the motorcycle helmet and ordered me onto the bike as he stepped towards the girls. Taking a deep breath, he slowly, and verbally, shouted at them with all of the clarity he could conjure up in one sentence. Emmett hadn't taken speech therapy growing up like had, so he never spoke except through signing. I was almost curious to see what he had to say out loud to these girls that he couldn't say through signing. Perhaps he felt like they needed to comprehend and understand these words.

"Leave. Now. You're just selfish and immature—all of you. Go!" Emmett shouted, waving them off.

The girls laughed at the sound of his voice and seeing their laughter felt like a stab to the heart. I couldn't stand to see them making fun of him like that anymore than I could stand losing someone I cared about. I stood up next to them and with a clearer voice shouted at them.

"You heard him! Go home. All three of you are sluts and you're lucky if you'll get anyone to talk to you with that horrible nose job," I said to the girl who had spoken to me. She gasped and put a hand up to her nose, running away in embarrassment with her little "friends" following behind her.

I turned around to face Emmett and I could clearly see the hurt in his eyes. "Are you okay?" I signed.

He released a deep breath and nodded, shrugging his shoulders. I looked up at the sky and saw that the light was dimming and that it would be dark soon. I turned towards his motorcycle and swung my leg over before he climbed in front of me.

I tapped his shoulder and he turned around to look at me. "Thank you. You helped me through this again."

He shrugged his shoulders and signed back. "It was nothing." Emmett smiled halfheartedly and started the engine, pulling out of the parking lot and heading towards my home where my mother Regina and the Kennishs' would be waiting for me. I knew what I had to tell my mother. Even if it meant a change in who I was and a change in my friends, I had set my mind.

I was going to try the surgery. I was going to cure my hearing loss once and for all.

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><p>I walked towards my large house where my mother and I lived alone on the Kennishs' property and placed my hand on the doorknob.<p>

"Mom?" I called, opening the door of our home and setting my book bag on the counter in the kitchen. I sensed her arrival and turned around to face her. She looked at me questioningly.

"Yes, Daphne?" she asked, her brown eyes worried. I did not often have a lot to say to her lately since I found out the truth about her past with Bay's pictures and her knowledge about us being switched at birth, but now was urgent. I had a huge favor to ask her and I was not sure how she was going to take it.

I knew my mother would think of a dozen—perhaps hundreds—of ways to talk me out of my decision, but if there was one thing that someone needed to know about me, was that I did not give up easily and once I made a decision I stuck to it no matter what.

"I need to talk to you."

"What's up?" she asked, signing as she spoke. Her eyebrows creased and she walked behind the kitchen counter as I sat on the chair in front of her.

I looked into her eyes for a few moments, weighing my words and thinking them through carefully. I was not sure how she was going to respond to what I had to say, but I knew I had to say it.

I took a deep breath and ran my hands through my blond hair before looking up at her.

"I want to try the surgery."

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	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 is uppp! :) Sorry they're taking much longer now! School's in and I just haven't found the time! I'll try my best though! :) Read and review! Much appreciated :D 3 xx **

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**~ Twihardfan3194.**

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><p>My mom's eyes looked like they were about to jump right out of their sockets. That had never been something that I wanted, and we both knew that for a fact. I was not sure what had changed my mind, but right now it seemed like the right thing to do. I felt like I was missing out on everything important in life due to my disability. I couldn't take it anymore.<p>

"You want to _what?_" she asked with surprise, her voice catching.

"I want to get the cochlear." I sighed and buried my face in my hands. "I'm tired of everybody thinking that I am different. I want to be accepted. I want people to know me as someone who is just like them, not some retard who can't even speak to someone without having to read their lips to figure out what they're saying, or who needs a translator to follow her around at school because she can't pick up the quick words that her teachers are explaining or what other students are constantly babbling about. Everybody talks so fast that I can't keep up. I want to go and do things on my own terms without having to have someone be around with me twenty-four-seven!" I complained.

"Retard? Who on earth ever called you _retarded_?" my mother demanded, signing angrily.

"Just a girl from school. And many others behind my back, I'm sure—literally. If I can't see their lips, I can't hear them. Anybody can say what they want about me and I won't know because I can't hear a freaking word they're saying!"

"Now that does _not_ sound like the Daphne Paloma Vasquez that I know."

"In the technical sense, I was never supposed to be _Daphne Paloma Vasquez!_ None of this was supposed to be mine. I was not supposed to be the one who caught the bacteria that made me deaf, and I wasn't supposed to have the life that I have right now, trying to figure out what the heck is going on!"

I could tell the words I said hurt my mother, and I wanted so badly to take back every one of them. But I couldn't. It was too late and now I knew this discussion wasn't going to end well.

I took a deep breath and wiped a few tears away from my eyes. "Forget it. Just forget I said anything." I started to get down my stool when my mother walked around the table and placed her hand on my shoulder. She waited a minute until I would look up at her so she could speak to me, her signing more pronounced then earlier.

"You are beautiful. There is absolutely _nothing _that you should want to change about yourself. If the other kids at school can't accept you for who you are, then they aren't worth your time. Just don't do anything that you don't want to do. Do not let Katherine and John pressure you into something that could end badly for you. What about Emmett? Do you want to leave him alone?" she questioned.

"Emmett has other friends who are deaf. I would not be leaving him alone," I insisted, moving my hands in annoyance as I rolled my eyes. Did my mother think that I was the only friend that Emmett really had? I could name quite a few friends at Carlton that Emmett had, although I was the only one he really hung around.

But I couldn't help but think through her words. What _would _happen if I got the cochlear? What would happen to my friendship with Emmett? Would he shut me out, think of me as someone who would just betray him because she wants to be like everybody else?

I did have to agree with my mom. This isn't something I would normally do. I didn't normally let what other people had to say about me effect my decisions and wants. But after I had heard John and Katherine talking last night about the cochlear and telling my mother in the mansion, I couldn't help but start to have second thoughts on the whole surgery.

"Just think about it," my mother insisted, rubbing my shoulder before walking out of the room. I took an exasperated breath and turned around to walk back out the door. I needed to go see Bay. Although I knew Emmett would be with her too, I knew he also needed to know what I had to say.

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><p>I nervously knocked on the side of Bay's garage door, stopping dead in my tracks when I saw her and Emmett. They pulled away from their make out session and she looked at me curiously, not even bothering to look offended or sheepish with embarrassment. I had long come to accept Emmett's feelings for Bay, but every once in a while there was still that hit of jealousy that lurked in the furthermost corners of my brain.<p>

Bay ran her hands over her dark curls and detangled her hand from Emmett's, standing up to walk over to me. She could read the expression on my face, I could tell by the way she looked at me with worry.

"What's wrong?" she asked nervously, signing very slowly.

"You don't have to sign for me. I can read your lips just fine," I said, annoyed.

Emmett's eyebrows furrowed and he came over to stand beside me. He put his arm around my shoulders and I shrugged him off, sitting down in a nearby cushioned chair. Bay's art cluttered the room, paints and pastels scattered all over the floor and in various corners of the garage. I spotted countless easels next to each other and spread apart, all painted written on. There was a pastel portrait of Emmett in one corner, newly finished. His grin was pronounced in the picture and he looked happy. I wished he would look that happy now.

"I want to," she insisted. "For Emmett."

I rolled my eyes and signed, pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. I measured Emmett and Bay's expressions for a few minutes before blurting out, "I think I want to transfer back to Carlton." I mentally slapped myself. What was I doing? That had not been what I had wanted to say at all!

Bay's face was taken aback, surprised. She cleared her throat and looked at Emmett, who was a mirror of what Bay was showing. "Transfer back to Carlton? What's wrong with Buckner?" she asked slowly.

"Nobody wants me there," I insisted, angrily signing my hands out of habit. "I don't belong with you hearing people." _Not yet, _I silently thought. "I was doing so much better at my old school. I think it would be best for everyone if I just transferred back and life went back to the way it used to be."

Bay shook her head. "Life can never go back to the way it used to be, Daphne. Life will _never_ be normal. We were switched at birth for crying out loud! What the heck is normal about that? _Nothing!"_ Her voice toned down a bit and she murmured quietly, "Nothing."

Tears sprang to her eyes and for once she didn't try to cover them up. "You want to be with Emmett, I can understand that. You want to be with people who are just like you, but look at you! You are one of the strongest people I know, and you're just going to give that up because you feel like you aren't _wanted at Buckner? _Lindsey was just being today what she normally is to everybody—an _idiot_ and a _brat_." How did she know about that? I sighed. _Emmett_. Of course he told her.

"But don't let what she says get to you," Bay continued, tears trailing down her cheeks. "I have dealt with her the whole time I have gone to Buckner, but look at me! Do you think people accept me for who I am? No, of course not! But do you see me running away from my fears just because I feel like I'm not wanted or accepted? I _know _I'm not accepted! Not everybody is acc—"

"STOP!" I yelled, standing abruptly up and cutting off her painful words. "You have no idea what it's like…to be lost all the time! Going back to Carlton would make me a whole lot better instead of crap all of the time I'm at Buckner!" I shouted.

I could tell Emmett wanted to say something, but knew it would be best if he just hung back. This was not his fight to argue with, and after what Bay had just told me, I had almost forgotten about the cochlear all together and felt this is what I had come to tell them.

"You're just doing what you always do," I insisted. "Making everything about _Bay_. You know, Liam was right when he said that."

"Don't you _dare _bring up Liam! He is not of our concern right now! He's out of my life for the better! And I will not have you sticking around here, reminding me of my past mistakes!" she shouted, storming out of the garage before bumping my shoulder as she walked by.

I knew she was saying things behind my back that I couldn't hear (and probably didn't want to hear, for the better), but at the moment I honestly didn't care. The way Emmett was looking at me now, standing in front of me, broken and helpless, made me want to run into his arms and hug him, telling him everything was going to be alright. I knew nothing was going to be alright.

Nothing would ever be alright. Bay was right. We were switched at birth.

And nothing was going to change that.

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><p><strong>Reviewww plzz!:) They make me happy and some feedback is always nice :D Gives me inspiration to keep writing. And thanks so much for the favorites and story alerts that I've received !<strong>

**~ Twihardfan3194. (Kaitlyn)**

**P.S. Trying to make the chapters longer, but honestly don't have the time :/**


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